


Model Number One

by VeteranKlaus



Series: Become Human [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: (i think), (non-graphic), Alternate Universe - Detroit: Become Human Fusion, Alternate Universe - Future, Androids, Body Horror, Character Death, Gen, Unethical Experimentation, aka the tua kids are androids or something of the sort in a detroit become human universe, no knowledge of detroit become human is needed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:07:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27026326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeteranKlaus/pseuds/VeteranKlaus
Summary: Number One is an android, and so it is out of the question for him to disobey or question his creator. It shouldn't even be possible.But sometimes Number One thinks about Ben's metal frame in the basement, and he wishes he could be more.
Series: Become Human [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972444
Comments: 11
Kudos: 58





	Model Number One

**Author's Note:**

> Self indulgent Android content babeyyy  
> This is set in the Detroit: Become Human universe, but no knowledge of that is needed to read this: just know that it’s set in late 2030’s and androids look and act like humans, are very common in every household and in public, and are become self aware and want to be treated equally.
> 
> Shout out to Val for enabling me and shout out to Kay for reading this! <3
> 
> I have oneshots planned for each Hargreeves’ kids and might add some other characters in, and may do a bigger story incorporating all of them later, who knows. But for now: I have oneshots. This is Luther’s, though you get a sneak peak of some other’s here.

The first thing 1.001 sees as he activates is the face of his creator.

_ _REGINALD_HARGREEVES_  _ he identifies, hovering inches from him and studying him. He sits, and he waits, because he hasn’t been given any instructions. In a millisecond, he processes all of the data and information that has already been uploaded into his system.

Reginald Hargreeves, 29 years old. Married to Grace Hargreeves. Occupation unknown. The room around them is brightly lit and sterile, and he is on a bed. They are the only ones in the room. There are stains of blue on Sir Hargreeves’ clothes, and on his fingers. Thirium 310, he recognises. Vital to an android’s function. 

“Number One: analytics.”

And so Number One lists everything, and he answers the questions he is asked. He performs the tests requested of him, and he performs them perfectly. There is not a fault in his system, physical or in coding. He knows this because he scans himself five times and reports the lack of faults to his creator, who in turn has him shut down again.

When Number One activates once more, he is in the same room, on the same bed. It is a week later. There is more clutter in the room. Sir Hargreeves has been busy. There is evidence of more androids having been here, although there’s none currently in the room.

“Number one: analytics.”

And so Number One lists everything. When asked questions, he answers them. When requested to perform tests, he performs them perfectly. There is not a fault in his system, physical or in coding. He performs better than he did last time, however, because his frame has been upgraded. Sir Hargreeves has him perform tests and scans for a week before he leaves the room he activated in for the first time.

Sir Hargreeves and, consequently, Number One, lives in a mansion. Number One is not permitted to leave the premises. He has a schedule to stick to, tasks to do, and he does them. They are the same for fifty-seven days. 

Number One patrols the mansion, and he patrols the perimeter. He cleans. He gardens. He checks the locks on all the cells in the basement, and ensures that there are no weaknesses or faults in any cells, or in the foundations, the walls, the windows. There are no signs of escape, no signs of any androids in the hallway other than himself. The only other being in the hallway or around the cells has been Sir Hargreeves. The inhabitants have not succeeded or attempted escape or sabotage. 

After fifty-seven days, Sir Hargreeves expands ownership of him to his wife. 

After sixty-four days, Number One catches people trying to trespass on the property. They ask him questions he doesn’t, and can not, understand. Sir Hargreeves has no secrets in his property. Sir Hargreeves does nothing unethical on his property. Number One has been treated with care and respect, as much as an android deserves. Probably even more.

Sir Hargreeves is a good man. He is his creator, and he’s good to him, so long as Number One serves his purpose.

Even if he wasn’t treated as such, such things don’t apply to androids like him.

After two-hundred and ninety-four days, one of the inhabitants in the cells in the basement destroys itself. Number One is required to report this to Sir Hargreeves.

After three-hundred and eight days, Number One stands and watches Sir Hargreeves as he creates another android, one designed to be a companion to Number One and to aid in patrolling the premises, and catering around the house. The inhabitants in the basement have been more active. Sir Hargreeves fears them getting out of hand. Number One wouldn’t let that happen, but it would be easier with aid.

It takes two months for Sir Hargreeves to succeed with the new companion. 1.066. Number Six.

He and Number Six work together on the property. It is easier to maintain it with the help, and it helps Number One - and Number Six too - to practice their charisma. Grace had complained, though not rudely, about how robotic their speech and reactions had been. Able to practice conversations and human mannerisms with one another whilst doing their tasks is efficient and effective. 

Number One appreciates the work Number Six helps him complete; the progress he helps him make. It is nice to discuss their tasks, sometimes, to someone who understands. The company is nice, too. Not that Number One feels lonely. He’s not built to feel things.

Forty-seven days after Number Six has been confirmed to work successfully, there is mayhem in the basement. Both of them need repairs. Sir Hargreeves takes it upon himself to upgrade Number Six while he’s at it. Number Six’s frame is smaller than Number One’s, and he is more vulnerable to damage under attack - Sir Hargreeves ensured Number One had the best protection possible. Number Six didn’t have the same protection. The upgrades made him capable of causing more damage; reducing the likelihood of being vulnerable to attack.

When the next upheaval in the basement occurs, it is taken care of within three seconds, thanks to Number Six, although Number Six has to remain charging for three days. 

A year after Number Six has been activated, the distress in the basement peaks.

Sir Hargreeves has been busy lately. The basement is more full than it was when Number One activated. All of the inhabitants are more active, more sentient. This causes more problems. It’s Number One and Number Six’s job to fix this.

And then the basement door breaks.

Perhaps, if Number One had done better checks, this wouldn’t have happened. Perhaps he would have been prepared. Perhaps he would have been ready. Perhaps he would have been closer; would have been faster.

As it is, Number Six is closest. He gets there first. He gets there alone.

He completes his job, and stops the inhabitants from breaking loose completely and endangering Sir Hargreeves or his pregnant wife. 

The damage is irreparable.

Number One patrols the mansion and the perimeter. He does whatever tasks are required of him. He ensures Sir Hargreeves and Grace are safe. He ensures that the locks in the basement are secure, that there isn’t a single sign of escape, of attempted escape.

At the end of the long, winding hallway in the basement, he stops by the last cell each time. He doesn’t have to check this lock, he knows. There’s only one inhabitant, and they’re too damaged to break out even if they tried, though he knows they wouldn’t. 

Number Six’s working eye blinks slowly at him, like a falling shutter to a camera. His head twitches, metal jaw scraping the wall he’s slumped against; the wall that he hasn’t moved from since Sir Hargreeves made Number One place him there. 

“Hello,” Number One says. Without Number Six, it takes longer to do tasks, and he has to do more himself. There are no more conversations. No company. 

It’s lonely. Number One misses him. If he hadn’t been so slow, so weak, he would have been there to help him, and he could be okay, rather than stuck in this dark basement. 

Number Six croaks a reply, his voice warbled and static, but Number One can pick up on what he means just fine.

Number One spends twenty minutes every day with Number Six in the basement. It doesn’t make him sad to see the state Number Six is in now, active but falling apart, malfunctioning and nearly failing, only because Number One wasn’t designed to feel sadness.

However, he thinks he might be able to replicate impressions of it.

He doesn’t tell Sir Hargreeves of this.

He spends twenty minutes a day talking to Number Six. It helps him learn speech patterns better. It helps him have a deeper understanding of the world around them, because Number Six likes stories. Alone in the basement with so little stimuli, the least Number One can do is try to give him something to occupy himself with. Stories, fantasies. Something like thought. Something they also shouldn’t have. Otherwise, they talk about their creator. About his wife, and their child coming. 

Number Six tries to smile at the idea of a child. That’s supposed to be a good thing for humans, and so, accordingly, they will both be as close to happy as they can be for their creator. 

Number Six asks what they’ll name the child.

Number Six asks what his name is.

Number Six wants a name.

Number One isn’t permitted to give him such a thing. But he can give suggestions. Ideas. Passing by Grace in the morning room, he once heard the name  _ Ben _ on the radio.

Number Six likes the name. 

Ben says it every time Number One comes down to see him on his patrols. 

Ben is failing. 

He glitches. He chatters and groans and clicks like the rest of the inhabitants in the basements. He cries his name and with the metal bone of one arm, he scratches it in the walls, as if proud to show it off. He seems upset when Number One only has a number.

He doesn’t suggest a name for Number One. His speech starts failing too rapidly for that. But he makes sounds, and Number One can make it resemble a name.

_ Luther. _

He hides the name in the deep files of his memories, along with Ben’s. He doesn’t mention it, or tell anyone about it. He tells Sir Hargreeves of Number Six’s shutdown in summer, when he finally failed, when his degrading systems couldn’t keep going on. Sir Hargreeves writes it down and doesn’t speak of Number Six anymore. As if he never existed. As if he never mattered.

He mattered to Number One, but he shouldn’t have. He’s an android. He doesn’t feel things. He doesn’t make connections. But Ben was special to him, and he misses him, and he wishes he were still here, wishes he could have saved him, wishes Sir Hargreeves would have saved him, or at least saved his consciousness. But it isn’t his place to want things, to feel things, to ask for things, so he doesn’t. He misses Ben in silence, and he does the job he was created to do.

His wife gives birth. Number One stays by the basement door as they’re in hospital. Only Sir Hargreeves and the baby come back, and it’s Number One’s job to care for the sickly child as Sir Hargreeves locks himself in his workshop.

Number One never comments on the new android created four years later, spitting image to the late Grace Hargreeves. He doesn’t comment on their child, or his health, or the treatment Sir Hargreeves provides when he gets sick. He does it in the best interest of the child. Number One isn’t programmed to question him, anyway. 

He does, however, wonder what Ben might have called the child. He would have disliked Number Five. 

Number One keeps the fleeting impressions he feels to himself. He does his job. He guards the mansion. He guards Number Five, and keeps him inside. He visits Ben’s frame in the basement, and hopes he doesn’t have to add Number Five’s beside him. He does what he’s told, what he was created generously by Sir Hargreeves to do, and nothing else, because he’s only an android. He’s only an android made to serve a purpose, and that’s what he’ll do. 

Even if he misses Ben. Even if he isn’t sure where he stands on Sir Hargreeves treatment of Number Five’s illnesses, when he keeps the child indoors despite the fact it is safe for him outside, and despite how much Number Five begs to play outside, to see the world beyond the mansion. 

Even if he knows he shouldn’t even be able to mourn Ben or question Sir Hargreeves in the first place. Even if, sometimes, he wishes he could do more; be more. 

**Author's Note:**

> I have oneshots planned for each Hargreeves’ kid and might add some other characters in, and may do a bigger story incorporating all of them later, who knows. But for now: I have oneshots. This is Luther’s, though you get a sneak peak of some other’s here.
> 
> I’d love to hear thoughts if you have any! Thank you for reading :)


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